TV Detail: Life on Mars review—series premiere on ABC

The latest British import to hit American network TV is a cop show with a twist. In the original Life on Mars, which aired Stateside on BBC America the last two years, detective Sam Tyler is hit by a car in the year 2006 and wakes up in his beloved Manchester, U.K., in 1973, not knowing how or why he got there, whether he's traveled through time, lying in a hospital bed in coma and dreaming of the past, or just plain crazy. Like AMC's Mad Men, the show explored sexism and abuse of power, but Life on Mars was much more explicit in its judgments with a protagonist with modern-day sensibilities.

In ABC's version, Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) is a 2008 detective with the
NYPD, transported back to 1973, where the Twin Towers stand tall over
the skyline. The location and a bigger budget are among the few
changes. As Tyler wanders the streets of New York, he says, "My mind
can only invent so much, so I'm going to walk until I can't think up
any more streets or faces or arguments. Details, there are only so many
details."

But the details are endless, from the buildings, the cars, the
advertisements, the fonts and the the clothes and hairstyles of the
many, many extras. It's fun little trip back to a time when things like
warrants and lawyers were unnecessary niceties. Just unusual enough for
sci-fi geeks like me and plenty of crime-solving for the procedural
fans. Plus, Harvey Keitel plays the police chief.

Back in Manchester, the show wrapped a tight storyline into two seasons. It'll be interesting to see if, like The Office,
the Americanized version uses the original plot as a baseline to add
its own flavor. But if it doesn't cut through the overcrowded mass of
cop shows, it'll never get the chance.